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Edmunds team sets cross-country electric record in Tesla

A team of drives from car-shopping side Edmunds.com says it set a record for cross-country travel in an electric car driving a 2013 Tesla S from Redondo Beach, Calif. , to New York, N.Y. in 67 hours and 21

A team of drivers from car-shopping site Edmunds.com says it set a record for cross-country travel in an electric car, driving a 2013 Tesla S from Redondo Beach, Calif. , to New York, N.Y. in 67 hours and 21 minutes.

Edmunds says that broke the previous record of 76 hours and 5 minutes set by a team from Tesla.

Tesla S has a long range -- well more than 200 miles -- but the battery pack to store that much energy requires a long recharge. Tesla's Supercharger stations use high power to fill the batteries in an hour or so instead of taking multiple hours.

The team figured the battery pack would fill faster if close to empty, so only put in as much juice as needed to reach the next Supercharger, rather than filling the battery pack as full as possible.

Often they arrived at the next plug-in with only a few miles of range remaining.

The drivers ate while the car recharged and took turns sleeping in the car.

They figure they lost an hour fussing with toll booths across the Eastern U.S.

They claim they didn't dawdle, but avoided needlessly fast and aggressive driving that drains batteries quickly. Cross-country, on batteries, by the numbers:

Distance: 3,331.9 miles

Total time: 67 hours, 21 minutes.

Driving time: 52 hours, 41 minutes

Average driving speed: 63.2 mph

Total Supercharger plug-In time: 14 hours, 40 minutes

Average Supercharger plug-in time: 38.3 minutes

Number of Other Stops: 0

Total energy consumption: 1.06 Megawatt-hours

Total fuel cost: $0 (thanks to Tesla's free Superchargers, available to all Tesla owners)